• Part One: The Hottest Water in Chicago• Antidisestablishmentarianism• Is It Maya? Or: Notes from Behind the Veil• On Andrew Wyeth, Checked Suits, Broken Hair, Busted Dreams, and Transcendence• On the Lower Frequencies• The Koan of Nana• Inner Live• I Light Out for the Territory• Part Two: Professor Dearest• The Zen of Bigger Thomas• Waiting for Godot on Jeffery Boulevard• The Anglophile Moment, Or: You Came a Long Way from Saint Louis• O Porgy! O Bess!• Bernarda Alba’s Picnic, Or: The Myth of the Eternal Return• Where I lived, and What I Live For